A Halloween display outside a Richland Township home is drawing attention for its reference to immigration arrests.
A resident put a skeleton in a sombrero with its wrists ziptied in the front yard. A second skeleton beside it wears a baseball cap and a black utility vest that resembles garb worn by agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, aka ICE.
All of the skeletons are loosely tied on ropes, swaying in the wind.
“This is the type of (stuff) that my neighbors do out in (Pennsylvania),” a TikTok user said in a video showing the display, photos of which were then obtained by this news organization.
“We really stooping to this?” the social media user also wrote.
The homeowner said her husband put up the display because they’re “full-fledged Republicans” and they’re “fired up about what’s going on in this country.”
The display quickly drew backlash: A stranger entered their property and yelled at her husband, the homeowner said.
“I told my husband, ‘You’ll have repercussions from this,’” she added.
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has used the sombrero, a traditional Mexican hat, on social media in recent weeks to mock their political opponents amid the partial government shutdown.
White House officials have alleged that Democrats in Congress are stonewalling the budget in order to provide health care coverage to undocumented immigrants.
The Republican budget bill reduces Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals, which are required to provide emergency care regardless of immigration status. But undocumented immigrants aren’t eligible to enroll in federally funded health insurance, including undocumented children.
Democrats said they’re blocking the budget in part to demand an extension of the health insurance subsidies set to expire this year, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will result in 4 million fewer people with health insurance within eight years. Cutting the subsidy would also double what some people pay for Obamacare, an analysis by health research nonprofit KFF found.
ICE has detained dozens of people in the Philadelphia suburbs this year, including in Plumstead in July. A Bucks County judge is expected to decide this month whether the sheriff can implement a program that grants his deputies the power to act as ICE officers.
A recent Supreme Court ruling allows ICE agents to detain people solely because they look Latino.
